Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
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And thinking about it as I type, Peter Bowen and many others probably never sold ebook rights as they weren't a viable market in 2006. So I am probably spouting nonsense 
Helen |
My understanding is that most contracts didn't have explicit ebooks rights until fairly recently. Some publishers have asserted that the language in the contracts give them ebook rights, but I don't think it's something that has gone to court. I would suspect that an author with a good agent is probably better off in this regard than most. Also, my understanding is that most book contracts have rights reversion clauses which say that if the book goes out of print, then the rights revert back to the author. As with most matters of contract law, it comes down to the specific language in the contract.
I do remember that there was a bit of a dust up between Elizabeth Moon and Baen books over ebooks rights back when Jim Baen first started doing the websubscription and ebooks.